The 4th issue of the IGALAblog is out

Welcome to the 4th issue of the Igala blog! One year has passed from the first issue and we are delighted to see that the blog is growing as a platform where people from the academic world share their research and their experience in relation to language, gender and sexuality! We hope that you will keep submitting your posts.

This issue is dedicated to sexism and sexist language. As this is the topic my research focuses on (direct and indirect sexism in Italian), I have particularly enjoyed reading the posts – I am sure you will too. The problematization of sexist language in the private and public sphere, an ‘institutionalization’ of sexist practices in balanced and imbalanced mixed-gender groups, as well as foregrounding accepted and, apparently, uncontroversial gender groups while backgrounding others, are at the centre of this issue.

Before engaging with the posts of this issue, you will be able to read the story of Tyanna Slobe, a graduate student at the University of California. She won the Best Graduate Paper Prize at IGALA 9. I here thank Ben Rowlett, the IGALA Graduate Student Representative for looking after the prize and the graduate community.

ISSUE 4: SEXISM AND SEXIST LANGUAGE: EVERYDAY AND INSTITUTIONALIZED DISCRIMINATION

These are the contributors:

Sexist Language – But Sexist against Whom? Laura Hekanaho (PhD student at University of Helsinki). Her post focuses on definitions of sexist language and how non-binary people are possibly discriminated against in language as well as in scholarly work on sexism.
Language and gender in British comedy: some insights from Mock the Week. Robert Lawson (Senior Lecturer in Sociolinguistics at Birmingham City University). His post is an adaptation of the paper: Lawson, R., Lutzky, U., Not getting a word in edgeways? Language, gender, and identity in a British comedy panel show. Discourse, Context and Media (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2016.04.002, in which institutionalised sexism is discussed through the amount of voice-space given to female comedians in a UK TV comedy panel show.
Mademoiselle: crinoline and swings, promises and spring roses? Ann Coady, (PhD student at Sheffield Hallam University). In this post, we read about her experience as a researcher in sexist language and as a daily user of “controversial” language.

If you have enjoyed reading these posts, please do not forget to share them on social media! And do join us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/InternationalGenderandLanguageAssociationIGALA/?fref=ts and our twitter page @IGALAssoc. I will announce the topic of the next issue on the gala-list and this blog, if you want to keep in touch please do contact me at federicaformato dot ac at gmail dot com.